Following this set of posts, here I go with this bird ringed in northern Norway as L.f.fuscus, relocated in Malaga the last winter. Primary moult (January) and dark upperpart pattern points to nominal ssp., but overall pattern and structure (including the neck and head barring) strongly points to intermedius.

I have seen in Spain 2 other ringed as fuscus norwegian birds. Both showing mixed features.

Cheers
Gabi

J492____.jpg (100.17 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

J492_.jpg (131.55 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

J492.jpg (132.51 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

Last edited by vuelvepiedras on Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hi Jan,
Goa is a tricky place to photograph gulls!
On location and upperpart grey tone it should be a tundra breeder, either fuscus (paler bird) or heuglini. At the right is a bird with neck streaking more typical for heuglini, with yellow legs, paler upperparts and PMS of P7 fully grown by late November. Therefore it should most probably be another representative from the tundra belt (not an early moulting steppe taxon), and taymirensis comes up first in mind.
Then, when compared to the darker bird, this darker bird doesn't seem to be small anymore (which was my first impression, compressed pose), if taking in account that taymirensis is much bigger than average fuscus.
So, despite the bold head streaking and unfamiliar plumage, I would opt for heuglini. But I'm not sure about it by any reasonable standard...

The right (paler) gull gave me the impression of a barabensis, but as you say, the PMS could tell another story. I could settle with a heuglin for the subject gull indeed. However regarding 'taimyrensis' I´m a bit confused.

Another unringed bird, this time from 14 November, Espinho - Portugal.
P5 new, P6 on the way, dropped P7 and P8 to P10 old, moulted outermost secondaries??? and growing outermost GC....I would say primary moult was suspended on P4.
Could intermedius show this kind of moult score?